Summary: Why is Satan a liar? Why can’t he seem to handle the truth? And what does that tell us about the truth that’s in Christ?

(Enter wearing a military style outfit and address the audience as a drill sergeant might raw recruits. I even looked at one of our men and told him to “suck that stomach in soldier”)

OPEN: You are gathered in this assembly hall this morning to begin your basic training as a soldier of Jesus Christ. Over the next few weeks we’ll be addressing the basics of your faith that you need to understand in order to make you the best that you can be for Jesus Christ.

Our objective this morning is to help you understand the enemy – his tactics, objectives and motives.

Turn with me in your manual to the Gospel of John, chapter 8 (read text)

You are soldiers of Christ and you have an enemy.

His name is Satan and he is a dangerous opponent.

But he has one basic weakness: Satan can’t handle the truth!

He is a liar. There is NO truth in him.

Every time he opens his mouth he lies, because… when he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

And he is our enemy.

We are at war with him.

Ephesians 6:12 says “… our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil…

Satan is our enemy and his weapon of choice is deception. He uses ½ truths and outright lies to tempt us and destroy us.

He tempted Eve in the garden

And Jesus in the desert

He tempted Judas with gold

And Peter with fear.

He is the deceiver and the destroyer of all that is good, and his objective is to undermine all that is truth because Satan can’t handle the truth. And because Satan can’t handle truth… truth becomes our principal weapon against him.

APPLY: But, what is Truth?

We live in a society that is increasingly convinced that truth doesn’t exist. A number of survey have found that a high percentage of Americans aren’t even sure they know what truth is. Our secular colleges teach that absolute truth is a myth and that morality is an elusive goal that depends on what we want and feel rather than on what is right or wrong.

“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.”

What Ephesians 2 is saying is - before we became Christians, we were without God and thus there was no real truth in our lives. We merely lived by our own standard of right and wrong, which actually were the standards of the “ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” – Satan.

ILLUS: Back in 1996, Paul Harvey’s (1/31/96) told of a preacher who prayed at the State House in Topeka, Kansas. No sooner had he finished praying, than several angry congress men hurried to the microphone to object. His prayer had offended them!

His name was Joe Wright, and he was the preacher at the Central Christian Church in Wichita. He said he never "in my wildest dreams ... expected what the response would be."

But this was his prayer:

"Heavenly Father, we come before You today to ask Your forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ’Woe to those who call evil good,’ but we that’s exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that:

We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it moral pluralism;

We have worshiped other gods and called it multiculturalism;

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle;

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery;

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation;

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare;

We have killed our unborn and called it choice;

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable;

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem;

Jeff, I have read and "stolen" many of your thoughts and ideas. Your thoughts speak to me and have been such a personal help as well as a help in my ministry as a preacher and shepherd. This sermon has struck a nerve with me and has given form to some of my disjointed thoughts. Hope you don''t mind me being a "cling on." I thank God for you and how he is using you. By HIS Grace! David